


Snippets, Scenes and Storylines

by Azur



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-15
Updated: 2017-08-15
Packaged: 2018-12-15 15:46:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11809134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azur/pseuds/Azur
Summary: A place for all the plot ideas I had and started but forgot about.





	1. Lonely Road

**Author's Note:**

> In cleaning my computer, I found a bunch of weird plot bunnies that I started on and don't remember much of. Just going to collect them all here. 
> 
> Scene skipping galore ahead if you are actually reading this.

"…the cappuccino. What about you, Kaneki?"

\--his fingers lingered on the edge of the handle of an empty, porcelain cup, nails short and not black. _Not black?_

∞

What's he supposed to do with a second chance?

∞

"Black coffee, please."

Hide gives him a pinched, confused look but doesn't comment on his unexpected choice. Yet.

It hadn't even occurred to him to get anything else. The thought saddens him. Some nine odd months shouldn't feel like a lifetime. Is there anything left of who he was?

∞

 "So, tell me about that girl you like."

He's frowning, he knows, because Hide has stopped grinning and is looking at him, brows knitted in concern. His behaviour has been unusual. He's not Hide's best friend, Kaneki Ken.

∞

He feels distant. Detached and like he's dying, in a different way, all over again.

Lying in his own bed is strange.

He is not who he was, and no one knows who he is.

The burger he bought with Hide lies on his dresser uneaten. It still smells putrid. He knows he can eat it if he tries, but the thought churns his stomach.

He's no longer a ghoul, but not quite human.

He cries.

∞

"Hey, Rize?" He looks at their linked arms and feels only resignation. He ploughs on, regardless. "Who are you really?"

She smiles sweetly at him, all grace and soft lines. Her head tilts slightly as she asks, "What sort of silly question is that? You already know, Kaneki."

But he doesn't. He never knew her.

He wonders what parts of her are real. He doesn't think she is all bloodlust and hunger--that the sum of her is a villain in the guise of a quiet beauty. Her posture is relaxed, and the expression she wears is serene and open.

They walk on.

He looks past the railing, toward blinking lights and feels the wind chill the air. Turning, he regards her dress--thin compared to his jacket. He remembers his time as a ghoul, thinks about cold nights he didn't feel.

They are almost to the construction site.

There is still a chance.

He doesn't take it. 

∞

The next time he wakes up is on an operating table, with the quiet beep of a heart monitor in his ear and the the bright glare of white light overhead. A pair of gloved hands--Kanou's hands--are within his peripheral sight, and the smell is blood and antiseptic. 

He can't quite feel his extremities and doesn't remember being awake the first time. His eyes search out Kanou, and their gazes meet. 

He goes under. 

∞

"Excuse me, miss."  

Her blonde hair swishes lightly as she turns to regard him. "Yes?" The look she gives him is honest and open, and he think he knows why Touka tries so hard for this girl.

"You're Yoriko, right?" He continues at her nod. "I--well, I'm not stalking her or anything--just wanted to talk with you about Touka."

∞ 

"Touka," --is all the confidence and resolve he wishes he had and {something like the start of belonging somewhere, where he really doesn't }-- "is an important friend to me. And, I shouldn't be doing this; she'd never even take the risk, but…"

There's a chance this could work. Kaneki has seen the possibility, and it would make Touka happy. 

He has no idea what he is doing.

∞

"Think of things. _Please_?"

If this worked. _When_.

Maybe he still has a chance with Hide.

∞

_Yoriko doesn't believe the stranger with tired eyes. Doesn't want to believe her best friend is a ghoul._

_The doubt linger in her mind._

∞

"I was proud once. Of all the violence and death." Touka grimaces, mouth downturned more than Yoriko has seen in a long time."Proud and angry and afraid."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The gist of it is that Kaneki goes back in time and pretty much starts messing with everything. Escalations the name of the game.


	2. Guiding Light

The cloak draped across his shoulders is warm and smells faintly of blood, and Kaneki feels the exhaustion of ten days torture in the very marrow of his bones. He's collapsed in a listless heap, watching as Yomo, Uta and Tsukiyama fight in his stead, and he's confused by his own emotions because it sets him on edge that he's still so helpless--that he's never enough.

And yet…

He's selfishly happy that they'd come for him--that they'd risk their lives for a slim chance of his survival because he hadn't believed he'd come out of that room alive. But he had-- _at the expense of Kei and Kouto; in exchange for his humanity, for his principles and sanity and all of who he was_ \--and this is the result.

And what's he supposed to do now? What is he now?

He doesn't have answers or direction, just an empty ache in his chest and phantom pains in hisfingers and toes when he falls unconscious .

His head hits the ground, and he doesn't even feel it.

∞

 

Kaneki wakes with a headache and stiff joints, to the familiar, pastel walls of Anteiku's loft. The lights are dimmed, and he's lying on his back, body sunk into the soft cushions of a sofa and staring at the ceiling like it holds the answer to all his problems. The soft tinkling of clinking glass and muffled words filter from the cafe downstairs, and everything seems more normal than should be possible after the destructive confrontation in this room.

This is what he wanted to come back to, but this wasn't what he wanted to come back as.

Rize had killed him.

He'd been transformed by Kanou.

And Yamori had unmade him.

_Neither ghoul nor human._

A stranger in his own body.

The thought is pins and needles in his brain, an abstraction that he that continues to slip between his fingers.

His skin doesn't feel like it fits his body right, stretched too thin and too tightly to all the pieces of him. Lifting his hand, he stares at the black nails and wants to laugh at how little he feels.

Kaneki never wanted to be a ghoul. Had refused to live like one.

Somehow came to understanding facets of that life during his captivity.

He laughs, body lurching upright and nails digging into his knees.

It echoes high and slightly hysterical; and suddenly the door is being swung open with a bang, and Touka barges in.

He hears the crack of a bone breaking before the stinging pain in his face registers, but it doesn't matter because he has had worse, and the bones are already knitting back together.

She pulls him up.

Touka's hugging him, not at all gently, and that is, he reflects, one of the things he values most about their friendship. She doesn't treat him like fine china, and he needs that normalcy more than he'll ever need a shoulder to cry on.

"You, idiot…!" She makes a noise in the back of her throat, an inarticulate sound that he thinks means he's left her speechless with the sheer depth of his stupidity. Not that he agrees.

"Sorry." But she's alive, and they're alive-- _so many are deaddeaddead, and he could only ever watch_ \--and he'd made his choice.

To survive, to protect.

Touka draws back, eyes narrowing as they sweeping the lines of his body. She scowls, and he can see the displeasure in the tense lines of her body.

"I'm fine." _It was worth it._

"You aren't."

"I will be." Kaneki states, putting as much emphasis and conviction as he can into the words. He's not sure whether he's trying to convince her or himself, but the statement rings hollow even to his own ears.

That doesn't mean he's going to concede the issue.

They stand silently regarding each other until Touka throws up her hands in exasperation and sprawls onto the couch with a sigh. He sits beside her, their knees almost touching.

"Are you coming back to work?"

Is he? Kaneki can't imagine working with his current appearance, but what else is he to do?

∞

"You can't just leave!"

"I can't stay." He wants to--to go back to the not-quite-quiet companionship of before, but he's too different to just fall into what they had.

And if Kaneki's being honest with himself, he can't keep avoiding acknowledging the part of him that isn't human anymore. Can't continue to delude himself into thinking things can be normal, like they were before he'd become a half-ghoul. 

_Ghoul and human. Neither and both._

And not enough information to decide either way.

He realizes he doesn't know anything about ghouls beyond what has been necessary to know or forced onto him--hasn't even tried--even though he's seen how different they are from media portrayal, how similarly flawed and diverse they are to humans.

∞

He regards the mask in his hands, feels the leathery texture under the pads of his fingers. This is his face as a ghoul,and even if he hasn't had it very long, he can't deny that it's part in his identity. His hopes and ideals. _Beginnings._

"You better come back."

Kaneki presses the mask into Touka's hands, feels like he is giving her the fractured parts of him he wants to get back and put together someday.

"It's a promise," he replies.

∞

He disappears the next day into the noon crowd, just an aimless wanderer in a sea of busybodies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I believe this was from a desire to see more of ghoul society in general. Kaneki leaves Anteiku and goes off on a journey of self-discovery.


	3. Vying for Attention

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaneki's mother is devoured by a ghoul when he is ten years old.

Opening the freezer is finding another chopped up body stuffed haphazardly between cartons of ice-cream and packages of meat.

Kaneki sighs, breath coming out in a white trail, and pinches the bridge of his nose with his free hand. He adds covering up another murder to his to-do list, right below finishing his coursework for the week. Rearranging the body parts to a one side and everything else to the other, he grabs frozen lamb chops to thaw them for tonight and slams the fridge door closed.

"Suzuya, really?"

Suzuya smiles and shrugs before going back to his cereal.

"The head 'n stuff's in the cooler," he states around a mouthful.

"Ghoul or human?" Because he has assignments to finish, people to visit and information to steal, and he doesn't need too much more work on top of that.

"'s a ghoul."

Small mercies. Ghouls disappear frequently enough in the fourth ward that it's almost a non-issue.

He still doesn't know how Suzuya gets into these sorts of situations when he's not around. It's not even like he disappears all that often: they hang out--a lot--living in the same apartment and attending the same university and all.

At least Suzuya's not killing every random person who annoys him anymore.

And really, thinking on the last six odd years, it's a miracle they haven't been caught yet.

Hearing a pop form the toaster, he sets the meat aside and grabs his toast. He spreads a light layer of jam on it and bites into it absentmindedly. Learning against the kitchen counter, he let's the bread crumbs fall to the floor.

It really has been a _miracle_ that they haven't been caught by the CCG. Too good to be true considering the two of them. They'd been twelve when they'd gone on the run, and there'd been two others who'd disappeared around the same time. Kaneki is certain people were sent after them, and inconspicuous wasn't in either of their vocabularies back then, which meant someone (or very likely some people) had covered for them.

But why help two twelve year old orphans?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wherein Kaneki and Suzuya meet at a CCG academy and run away together upon discovering a rather convoluted conspiracy involving V, the Clowns and the CCG itself.


	4. A Dreamer's Ideology

Kaneki hesitated.

He perched on the roof a nearby building and watched as Hinami ran. Her mother's kagune--a brittle, ridged thing the streaks of it which reflected the morning light--clashed faultily against the older investigator's quinque, blocking attacks aimed at Hinami's retreating back. The sound of their weapons contacting reminded him of metal scraping against glass, the sort of noise that resonated in his brain.He noticed how her kagune chipped and flaked with each hit she took, and he knew she wouldn't be able to continue much longer.

There weren't many options: they'd seen her face, could recognize her and pursue her for as long as it took to kill the ghoul, and he couldn't protect her forever.

He had a goal to accomplish. This was his only chance to change everything.

To make things better. For Touka. For Hinami. For all his dead friends. For himself.

And Hinami deserved to be happy, to have family.

He didn't want her to lose that. Not like he had.

Kaneki leapt, propelling himself through a rush a cold air with his kagune even as it flattened and curled to wrap around his arm in a facsimile of Tsukiyama's drill-like kagune. It was more blade than drill, but the wrapping would protect his arm. The force of their weapons impacting reverberated up his arm, and as he deflected the trajectory of the attack, he used that split second opportunity to redirect his momentum and decapitate the man in the next breath.

One of the tentacles of his rinkaku was buried in the ground and pulled him back instinctively just as the sharp edge of a weapon gouged a deep gash between his lower ribs and punctured his lung. He breathed in sharply in pain, and the sudden pressure change sharp, flaring agony through his chest. He ignored the sensation best he could, feeling his body trying to regenerate from the damage, and cast his eyes for the other investigator.

Amon.

The man's expression was twisted in anger, teeth bared and weapon already arcing for another attack.

Kaneki didn't want to kill him--had established an unorthodox kinship with him through shared experiences. They'd come to an understanding after Amon had been turned into a half-ghoul; and he thought they'd become friends near the end.

But, he had to keep in mind, this wasn't the same person he'd once known. This version of him wouldn't hesitate to kill him to avenge his fallen comrade and had never lived-- _sufferedfoughtbled--_ like a ghoul.

And Kaneki--the person he'd become, whoever or whatever he was now--didn't have the words to convince him as he once had, to doubt and question his view of the conflict between CCG and ghouls.

The circumstance surrounding their first meeting had already been lost to Kaneki's choice, and he would see through it even if he felt like a traitor.

He blocked Amon's second attack with another tentacle; it split open an uneven mess of bright crimson, and the separated parts of it writhed and wrapped around the length of the blade until he could tug it from the other's grip. He shredded it to scrap metal and tossed it aside, the rapidly destabilizing mixture of ghoul parts spilling out and bubbling in a growing pool around the remnants.

The putrid smell of chemicals and ghoul flesh turn made him want to gag, and his nose wrinkled in disgust. It smelled even worse than the all the ghouls he had consumed.

Amon lunged for his partner's weapon, movements slower and less controlled than what Kaneki remembered, and flicked the whip-like weapon towards him. His aim hadn't deteriorated as it aimed to skewer him.

The tentacle Kaneki had anchored into the concrete burst out near Amon's feet and twirled around the man's ankle. As he dodged the incoming attack, he pulled at Amon's leg and surged forward when the man became unbalanced.

Kaneki snapped his neck. The crack echoed in his ears, deafening.

He gently settled the body on the ground, and turned to help Hinami's mother up.

"Uh, are you alright?" He asked hesitantly; he hadn't thought of what he would say in the aftermath.

"Yes…" A pause. "Yes… thank you." Her expression looked startled but relieved, and her hand squeezed his reassuringly.

His head felt cottony, and he wanted to get away from here.

"You should probably make sure your daughter is okay," Kaneki suggested, voice lilting up in question at the word daughter since he'd technically never met her before today.

Glancing at the dead bodies, he decided to bury them. He turned to retrieve them, hoping she would take the hint and leave.

She did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time travel. The future got bad, then worse.


End file.
